QUICK EDIT: If Ireland can say yes to homosexuality, why can't India?

The placing of a matrimonial ad by a mother for her gay son, and more recently, an ad featuring a lesbian couple, shows people’s attitudes towards the gay community are changing – a trend that can only be welcomed.

But let’s stop and ask ourselves: Are we missing the wood from the trees?

If the Irish can say yes to homosexuality (pictured above) there is no reason why India can’t abolish Section 377 of the IPC

Homosexuality is still a crime in this country, something that is an anathema when one looks at the world.

Ireland, a conservative Catholic country, recently had a same sex marriage referendum, to which the Irish voted yes.

So if the Irish can say yes to homosexuality there is no reason why India can’t abolish Section 377 of the IPC.

But such talk is likely to remain talk unless one gets to work on the ground level.

This will be hard work.

In a country where couples are killed for being of a different caste or religion, acceptance of homosexuality is something that seems to be light years away.

Indeed Mail Today had talked about how gay men and women were subjected to electric shocks in a bid to cure them of their ‘tendencies.’

This results in them giving into societal pressure and marrying, with disastrous results.

But one need not despair totally.

Such advertisements are at least showing gay couples as people who can live normal lives.

The problem is many people in India still prefer to shut their eyes to homosexuality, believing it does not exist.

Forcing them, and the government, to engage with it, will be a welcome start to resolving what is a very complicated issue in this country.